IT DOMINATES the whole society in America--Application made of
this principle by the Americans even before their
Revolution--Development given to it by that Revolution--Gradual
and irresistible extension of the elective qualification.

The political laws of the United States are to be discussed,
it is with the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people that we
must begin.

The principle of the sovereignty of the people, which is
always to be found, more or less, at the bottom of almost all
human institutions, generally remains there concealed from view.
It is obeyed without being recognized, or if for a moment it is
brought to light, it is hastily cast back into the gloom of the
sanctuary.

"The will of the nation" is one of those phrases, that have
been most largely abused by the wily and the despotic of every
age. Some have seen the expression of it in the purchased
suffrages of a few of the satellites of power; others, in the
votes of a timid or an interested minority; and some have even
discovered it in the silence of a people, on the supposition that
the fact of submission established the right to command.

In America the principle of the sovereignty of the people is
NEIther barren nor concealed, as it is with some other nations;
it is recognized by the customs and proclaimed by the laws; it
spreads freely, and arrives without impediment at its most remote
consequences If there is a country in the world where the
doctrine of the sovereignty of the people can be fairly
appreciated, where it an be studied in its application to the
affairs of society, and where its dangers and its advantages may
be judged, that country is assuredly America.

I have already observed that, from their origin, the
sovereignty of the people was the fundamental principle of most
of the British
.
colonies in America. It was far, however, from then exercising as
much influence on the government of society as it now does. Two
obstacles, the one external, the other internal, checked its
invasive progress.

It could not ostensibly disclose itself in the laws of
colonies which were still forced to obey the mother country; it
was therefore obliged to rule secretly in the provincial
assemblies, and especially in the townships.

American society at that time was not yet prepared to adopt
it with all its consequences. Intelligence in New England and
wealth in the country to the south of the Hudson (as I have shown
in the preceding chapter) long exercised a sort of aristocratic
influence, which tended to keep the exercise of social power in
the hands of a few. Not all the public functionaries were chosen
by popular vote, nor were all the citizens voters. The electoral
franchise was everywhere somewhat restricted and made dependent
on a certain qualification, which was very low in the North and
more considerable in the South.

The American Revolution broke out, and the doctrine of the
sovereignty of the people came out of the townships and took possession of the state. Every class
was enlisted in its cause;
battles were fought and victories obtained for it; it became the
law of laws.

A change almost as rapid was effected in the interior of
society, where the law of inheritance completed the abolition of
local influences.

As soon as this effect of the laws and of the Revolution
became apparent to every eye, victory was irrevocably pronounced
in favor of the democratic cause. All power was, in fact, in its
hands, and resistance was no longer possible. The higher orders
submitted without a murmur and without a struggle to an evil that
was thenceforth inevitable. The ordinary fate of falling powers
awaited them: each of their members followed his own interest;
and as it was impossible to wring the power from the hands of a
people whom they did not detest sufficiently to brave, their only
aim was to secure its goodwill at any price. The most democratic
laws were consequently voted by the very men whose interests they
impaired: and thus, although the higher classes did not excite
the passions of the people against their order, they themselves
accelerated
.
the triumph of the new state of things; so that, by a singular
change, the democratic impulse was found to be most irresistible
in the very states where the aristocracy had the firmest hold.
The state of Maryland, which had been founded by men of rank, was
the first to proclaim universal suffrage 1 and to introduce the
most democratic forms into the whole of its government.

When a nation begins to modify the elective qualification,
it may easily be foreseen that, sooner or later, that
qualification will be entirely abolished. There is no more
invariable rule in the history of society: the further electoral
rights are extended, the greater is the need of extending them;
for after each concession the strength of the democracy
increases, and its demands increase with its strength. The
ambition of those who are below the appointed rate is irritated
in exact proportion to the great number of those who are above
it. The exception at last becomes the rule, concession follows
concession, and no stop can be made short of universal suffrage.

At the present day the principle of the sovereignty of the
people has acquired in the United States all the practical
development that the imagination can conceive. It is unencumbered
by those fictions that are thrown over it in other countries, and
it appears in every possible form, according to the exigency of
the occasion. Sometimes the laws are made by the people in a
body, as at Athens; and sometimes its representatives, chosen by
universal suffrage, transact business in its name and under its
immediate supervision.

In some countries a power exists which, though it is in a
degree foreign to the social body, directs it, and forces it to
pursue a certain track. In others the ruling force is divided,
being partly within and partly without the ranks of the people.
But nothing of the kind is to be seen in the United States; there
society governs itself for itself. All power centers in its
bosom, and scarcely an individual is to be met with who would
venture to conceive or, still less, to express the idea of
seeking it elsewhere. The nation participates in the making of
its laws by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution
of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government;
it may almost be said to govern itself, so feeble and so
restricted is the share left to the administration, so little
.
do the authorities forget their popular origin and the power from
which they emanate. The people reign in the American political
world as the Deity does in the universe. They are the cause and
the aim of all things; everything comes from them, and everything
is absorbed in them.2

Footnotes

1 Amendment made to the Constitution of Maryland in 1801 and
1809.
2 See Appendix H.